The The European Union is prepared for the activation of the so-called “financial nuclear weapon” alluded to by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire after Germany’s ultimate decision to isolate Russia from the main international banking system, SWIFT.
At the moment, the disconnection of the Society for World Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) will be partial, so that this will become the harshest sanction imposed on Russia, after the first package of measures announced by Brussels and also by the United States Government. Sanctions that affected both the most important companies and financial entities in the country, as well as exports and imports of raw materials.
This decision will have to be ratified at the next meeting held by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the EU, in which the Spanish representative José Manuel Albares will be present. Despite the partial disconnection, as reported by ‘The country‘, the payment of gas and oil will be allowed. At the same time, the measure will come into force after days ago the US president, Joe Biden, ruled out its application.
“These sanctions have more consequences, although right now that is not the position“, exposed Biden on SWIFT, although he did explain that the sanctions decreed by Washington included measures to cut off technological access and limit Russia’s influence in high technology.
From Germany they want to make sure that this sanction will harm the right people. “What we need is a specific and functional restriction of SWIFT”, detailed both the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, and the Economy Minister, Robert Habeck. The two members of the German Executive guaranteed, on the other hand, the supply of weapons for Ukraine.
Ukraine demands complete disengagement
The expulsion of Russia from the SWIFT system was one of the requests made by the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, in the last meeting he had with the French president, Emmanuel Macron. “We demand the disconnection of Russia from SWIFTthe introduction of a no-fly zone over Ukraine and other effective measures to stop the aggressor”.
Founded in 1973 and based in Belgium, it is a interbank messaging system used by thousands of entities in any field, both financial and non-financial, to send messages about payments made securely. Any type of financial transaction made will be blockedand exports and imports of different raw materials such as gas or oil, will be affected.
With respect to the previous sanctions, those imposed by the United States include some such as limiting the capacity of the Russian army, blocking access to Russia’s largest bank, sanctions for elites and companies that may have benefited from the Kremlin. On the EU side, they have included the freezing of the Russian assets of the Union, among which are the assets of Vladimir Putin and Sergei Lavrovand the blocking of Russian banks’ access to the European financial market.